Outdoors: For mushroom lovers, it’s fungally fruitful

Friday

Jul 5, 2013 at 6:00 AM

My Lithuanian parents and my wife’s Polish family instilled in both of us a love of edible wild mushrooms. Picking the good ones is part of our heritage. Because of high temperatures and frequent rains, fabulous fungi should fill our forests and provide many gourmet dinners this season.

Not many people know more about local mushrooms than MassWildlife’s Russ Cohen. I asked him his predictions for this year’s harvest. He agrees that July should be fungally fruitful.

Chanterelles (cantharellus cibarius) — readily identifiable by their yellowish color, fluted sides and warped, asymmetrical tops — should be emerging now in Worcester County. Cohen looks for them in damp spots associated with hemlocks and/or moss, sometimes fruiting right on the edge of a road or trail.

King boletes (boletus edulis) or porcini can emerge now as well in spots favored by chanterelles. Hygrophorous milky (lactarius hygrophoroides) should be lushly fruiting soon as well. The latter are orange with yellow waxy gills. When cut, they give off a white milky juice.

Later in the summer, we should get good fruitings of the black trumpet chanterelle. Cohen finds them typically in association with beech trees. They’ll also readily grow along a path.

Beyond this sequence, Cohen won’t dare make any predictions. Mushroom emergence is very dependent on weather, which can change drastically in New England. The onset of a prolonged dry spell in Worcester County would be no more surprising than our current wet one. Fungiphiles hope conditions don’t dry out too soon.

The state Department of Agricultural Resources’ Division of Animal Health recently alerted dog owners of two canine parvovirus outbreaks affecting northern Berkshire County and Worcester County. Dozens of dogs have been infected. Several have died or had to be euthanized. Those fatalities could have been avoided.

Dogs can be vaccinated against parvo. Dog owners should check that their dog is protected. Parvo’s gastrointestinal symptoms usually include vomiting and diarrhea. Though parvo is often fatal, dogs can recover with early detection and aggressive treatment.

The disease affects only dogs and is spread from dog to dog. It’s highly virulent and can remain in the environment for months. Cured dogs are still infectious for months after.

“Many years ago, my neighbor, William Prout, came home after checking his trap lines. Whenever he got sprayed, he expected his wife to read him the riot act. This time, he got it good. But as he walked into the house, he surprisingly didn’t hear anything from her. She didn’t smell anything. Turns out she was baking with quite a bit of vanilla extract. He experimented with vanilla and found it worked great on sprayed dogs.

“Artificial vanilla doesn’t work. It has to be pure. We pour a couple of bottles into a 5-gallon bucket half filled with warm water and a little dog shampoo. We have the dog stand in the water to get the vanilla up into its paws. A warm water rinse outside, followed by a warm water rinse in the shower, works wonders. The wash water will also clear the odor from floors should the dog track it into the house.”

Responding to our column on pre-emptively shooting potentially hazardous wildlife at Worcester Airport, Bruce Wells, my venerable Classical High School English teacher and writing mentor recollected, “As kids, we used to hunt the slopes from Parson’s Cider Mill on Apricot St., up to the top where they were building the airport. At that time, I was equipped with a .410 shotgun, courtesy of an uncle who figured a 12-gauge would knock my flyweight body on my glutes. The hunting didn’t eliminate Worcester wildlife, but the development surely did.”

Anti-hunters should understand that development, not hunting, is the real threat to our wildlife. If they really want to protect wildlife, they should focus their energies on land protection and get involved with their local land trusts.

There’s yet another exciting reason to subscribe soon to MassWildlife Magazine. Subscribers will soon be receiving the much-anticipated “Field Guide to the Amphibians of Massachusetts.” The guide covers all 11 of our native salamanders and 10 species of frogs and toads. Spectacular photographs, many by award winner Bill Byrne, accompany each species. For a subscription — $10 for two years — and the complimentary new field guide, call (508) 389-6300. Additionally, reptile fans will be excited that MassWildlife will be reprinting their highly acclaimed, authoritative field guide to our Massachusetts snakes, which can be ordered at the same time.

With shad and stripers dominating the action on the Connecticut River, we don’t hear much about its other game fish. Some nocturnal specialists are very happy about that. Reports of several channel catfish up to 10 pounds have been quietly coming in. Chicken liver and fresh mackerel have been the most effective baits for these night-time marauders, and lots of coffee the preferred beverage.